In 20 column inches in Wednesday's paper I didn't have room to get into more of the stories people shared at Tuesday's DOD Mental Health Task Force meeting.

Although the meeting has passed you can still submit your testimony by following this link.

I went with retired Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Adams' account because it was the first time he's told his story in public – a senior leader from one of the Fort Lewis Stryker brigades speaking bluntly about how emotionally tough it was for him and his troops. Adams said he is battling his own case of severe post-traumatic stress disorder and that it felt good to get what he had to say off his chest. He said he wants soldiers to know he's going to counseling.

"I'm not a walking time bomb," he said. "I just have some issues, because I didn't like all that stuff that was going on, and it's OK not to like that stuff. ... In our line of work, there's a lot of bravado. There's no bravado in killing people, nobody but a murderer truly likes to kill people."

Others who testified Tuesday included Cynthia Lefever, who has fought long and hard to ensure her son Rory Dunn's care for devastating injuries he suffered in a roadside bomb blast in May 2004. She said she and other families have had to fight the Army to stop them from trying to medically discharge wounded soldiers too soon after their injuries. She said the pressure compounds the stress soldiers and their families feel, and called on the task force to recommend the Army halt the practice.

Another who testified was Stefanie Pelkey, whose story is at once heartbreaking and infuriating. Her husband, Army Capt. Michael Pelkey, came home from Iraq after serving the first months of the war and rapidly developed physical and emotional health problems. His condition deteriorated, and even though he was seeing his doctor at Fort Sill, Okla., for his physical symptoms, he was never diagnosed or treated for PTSD until a week before he shot himself in the chest at the family home in November 2004.

Many people are paying an incredible emotional toll for this war – some who've been there to fight it, others who've worried and prayed and supported them at home. We need to do right by these folks. For more on PTSD, check out Ilona Meagher's independent page here.